You can preserve colorful autumn leaves easily by spraying them on both sides with heavy duty hair spray! I did that, put them on twigs with wire - added nuts and other pods. I put them in a nice vase found in a thrift shop and made a lovely Thanksgiving centerpiece/guest gift to bring to my family's house. Outlay? $2-3 for the vase!

I am looking into inexpensive decorations for my wedding which is fall themed. I love burgundy and gold, my fiance loves the yellows and oranges. I have been searching for some inexpensive great ideas for chair decorations and table centerpieces that just won't break my bank. Any help on this? Any and all ideas will be welcome. Thank you

Answers

Look in dollar stores,some the party stores have inexpensive items. Also orientaltradingcompany.com has all kinds of favors, decorations, etc. for all occasions and they are really quite inexpensive. I think it will be easier to find things in the typical fall colors; orange, yellow, gold, brown, etc. I would say by mid summer stores will be having their silk leaves out in the craft departments, and you could lay stems of them in the center of the tables with whatever type of candles that you prefer to use.

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This would be easy to do and easy to undo. For the chairs all you would have to do is attach bows on the back made out of ribbons in the colors you choose to use.

Leaves and candles seems cheap enough to me. You can buy bouquets of leaves at the dollar store and then just remove the leaves. For the candle holders I'd go to thrift stores or garage sales and find cheap vases / glassware to put them in. (They don't have to match and I think it's boring anyway). Go to IKEA for cheaper candles. They don't have to "smell good" since it is just for viewing. Tulle is also cheap. Rolls of it, that is. Any fabric / craft store carries. You could drape some of that around the candle holders and have the leaves surrounding / on top of the tulle. And when it is all over, I'd make an attempt to sell the stuff and get some of the money back :).

My daughter was married in October so we used the fall leaf colors. Everything came from dollar stores. We used a square mirror trimmed in gold, put a tall cylinder vase filled with glass stones with a candle in the middle of it. We sprinkled silk fall leaves down the table as well as the colored glass stones. If you can't find any packages of leaves you can just get bunches of them at dollar stores and tear them off the stems.

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You could add inexpensive fall floral arrangements as well. Even her cake was decorated with fall flowers and leaves. The burgundy and oranges are absolutely gorgeous. For the wedding, we had the arch with greenery, fall leaves, ivory tulle, and white icicle lights hanging on it.

First of all congratulations. Fall weddings are my favorite. As an event designer and silk wedding flower designer of 10 years I promote high end style on any budget. Here are my thoughts.

Centerpieces: Don't underestimate the use of pumpkins. Large pumpkins can purchased for a little of $5 each and un-carved they will last several weeks. Carve them with a beautiful vine pattern, with table numbers, or your initials and make them luminaries. Surround the base with inexpensive garland spray painted copper or gold.

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Mix up your heights by using curly willow or dried leave bundles placed in burlap wrapped containers. Or use dried wheat bundles to make free standing tall centerpieces.

I also happen to have quite a few dried leave bundles on hand I would be happy to sell. They are extra from a wedding where I made 20 fall leave pomanders for the aisle. I will have to count how many I have on hand, but let me know.

I happen to have 5 or 6 larger corn husk pumpkins I am looking sell. They are brand new, just an incorrect size for what I originally intended to use them for. But they are big enough for centerpieces and you can set fall mums/plants inside, as there is a plastic liner. Let me know if you may be interested.

Chair decorations: It depends on the type of chair, but ribbon hung down from the top can be quite stunning. It's time consuming to do, but beautiful when executed property.

Tulle wraps and bows are the cheapest option as already stated. Thick rope looped into a couple of circles accented with leaves or a flower to hang on the side of the chair can look amazing too.

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Cut paper and rope/curling ribbon can be very pretty and cost effective. Cut the paper into triangle banners then stencil or stamp with your initials or fall pictures. You could also cut the paper into a variety of shapes (like leaves, pumpkins, flowers, etc) and string together.

I hope these ideas help. You can always contact me for more ideas. Good Luck and Happy Planning.